THE KING—AND HIS PORTRAITS.
THE ambition of all painters and engravers, in this courtly age, must necessarily be to have Majesty at the head of their list. A man who paints portraits, and has not painted the King, is but a sorry portrait-painter, and lacks the genuine mark—the mason' secret sign—that is to betoken him one of the admitted, and to open to him the door of all that is encouraging • in fortune and ad vancement. The King's face, like charity, covers a multitude of sins : • a slip of the brush—a false tone—a weak colour—a mistaken perspective—are all palliated, yea even honourable, in the man who has once been fortunate enough to have the type and form of Majesty upon his easel. The artist, who has not yet the potent charm" R. A." attached to his name, seeks to supply its place from this source ; the engraver yet unknown to fame, but eager to struggle to its topmost pinnacle, hunts out a brother of the brush in like distress ; and between them they contrive the plot that shall place this aurom potabile within their grasp. It is easily accom plished ;—they fabricate a little name for themselves from glimpses at the Royal person during theatrical visits and Parliamentary processions,—or, making a desperate hazard of some former adventurer's accuracy, mutually concoct from other specimens their own idea upon the subject, and give it to the world as "a portrait of his Majesty." The consequence of this is apparent. All the printsellers in town are inundated with fac-similes of the Royal person ; few of which are more to be relied upon for genuineness than the monastery relics of the holy cross, which, if brought together, would outweigh the forest of Lebanon in its most flourishing days of yore. Go to COLNAGHI'S or MONTANO'S, and the vender of lines and mezzotint will set before you an innumerable variety,—whole-length, half-length, miniature, three-quarter length, till the eye is fairly wearied in endeavouring to trace out, by comparison, winch is the one that may most be relied upon. Under these circumstances, we welcome with no small pleasure the new engraving of the KING by FINDEN after the painting of Sir THOMAS LAWRENCE. The magic letters " P.R.A." of which Sir THOMAS alone can boast—the high reputation which FianaEri holds as an engraver—are both of them good and valid guarantee, that at length we have a criterion by which all others, real or pretended, may be surveyed and appreciated. But there is a still higher guarantee than these—the engraving itself. It is so full of power—so vigorous without straining, so dazzling without tinsel, so spirited without extravagance, that, once having imbibed its own account of itself, no further confirmation is necessary. It is in the very style of all others that is most pleasant. "The King in his coronation robes"—" The King on horseback"—" The King in uniform," have been thrust upon us, till we have almost learned to mix him with his robes and his ceremonies of state : "the pride, pomp, and circumstance" of his exalted rank have hung around his image like an incubus, till the mind has become oppressed and weighed down by the attendant circumstances, rather than elevated to the enjoyment of the real features of the representation. Not so here :—this time he is a King, but he is also a man ; and if hitherto we have only had portraits of Majesty fitted by their outward show for the ball-room or the hall of state, one has now been vouchsafed to us, a fair companion for the closet or the domestic circle. It is so completely this in every respect, that were we to attempt to describe the features of the engraving, every one of them would arrive at that result. The easy, yet im pressive posture in which his Majesty is seated—the serenity of his features—the dega,g,6 manner in which one arm is thrown over the back of the couch—the happy introduction of a wide expanse of Windsor Forest in the distance—all tend to the same feeling, and make this portrait of the KING by far the most agreeable that we have ever seen ; while the arrangement of the apartment, the attire of the Monarch, and the insignia with which he is invested, are sufficient to mark the circumstance of royalty, but ofroyalty in its privacy andgetirement. As a work d! art, it is impossible to speak too highly of the labours of Mr. FIND EN : every portion of his engraving tells exactly as it was meant to tell, and as a tout ensemble it ranks among the very first productions of the art. We observe that some of our contemporaries are very busy with an account that the engraver has been four or five years engaged in the execution of this plate: we know not how that may be, but at least we are sure that it is impossible to survey what he has produced without being satisfied, that he has been exactly the proper number of days, months, and years, about his task.
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